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How to write an engineering resume?
If you don't know how to write an electrical engineering resume, it can negatively impact your job hunt.
Mistakes like missing sections, incorrect ordering of sections, incorrect length of electrical engineer resume, etc., can have a bad impact on the recruiter and ruin your chances of getting that much-deserved interview.
We are here with a detailed electrical engineer resume building guide to help you craft a job-winning electrical resume in 2023. Here you will get answers to the following fundamental resume-building questions:
- How do I write a resume for an electrical engineer?
- What format to use for framing a resume?
- How do engineers write resumes?
- How to describe electrical engineering work experience in a resume?
- What skills should I put on my resume for electrical engineering?
- Why is a resume summary critical?
- How to add education and certification details to a resume?
What is an Electrical Engineer Resume & Why Do You Need It?
The responsibilities of an electrical engineer are comprised of functions like testing & researching assembly and manufacturing materials & methods.
Landing a job in this time and age is easy and challenging because there are many openings for electrical engineering job profiles, but the number of applicants is abundant.
To stay on the top list during job hunting, you need to create an ATS-compliant resume.
- Applicant Tracking System helps the recruiters select the most relevant and suitable resumes.
- You need to ensure that your resume is built to get past the ATS by strategically placing the right words and phrases from the job description into your resume.
- You can place the right keywords for an electrical engineer resume in various sections like the skills section, summary section, professional experience section, etc.
Electrical engineers are in demand and make an average salary in the USA alone, as provided in the statistic below:
An electrical engineer resume will help the recruiters assess your abilities as an electrical engineer before deciding on getting you on board.
So you need to relate your resume to the requirements mentioned in the targeted job description, provided you possess the stated skills and experience.
Also, a well-written, on-point electrical engineer resume will help you get those coveted interviews to get your desired job.
Keep yourself updated with the dos and don'ts of writing the perfect resume.
Electrical Engineer Resume Format
There are three formats to choose from to write your electrical engineer resume.
They are:
- Reverse Chronological Resume Format
- Functional Resume Format
- Combination Resume Format
- Reverse Chronological Resume Format
This resume format serves professionals with an extensive work history and those who don't have any carer gaps.
In the reverse chronological resume format, we write the most recent information in terms of dates first and then date back in this order to the oldest one.
- Functional Format For Electrical Engineer Resume
The functional resume format makes the skills and professional experience section the star attraction. It highlights your skills and professional experience section more than other sections.
To know more about this format, visit our article on the functional format.
- Combination Resume Format For Electrical Engineer Resume
The first half of the combination format highlights the person's skills and achievements and is written using the functional format.
The lower half of this format which includes the professional experience and education sections is written using the reverse chronological resume format.
Electrical Engineer Resume Sections
Your electrical engineer resume will have the following sections in the same order as given below:
- Header
- Personal Information
- Profile Title
- Summary
- Key Skills
- Technical Skills
- Professional Experience
- Internships
- Education
- Additional Information
Writing Your Electrical Engineer Resume
Follow the below-mentioned resume writing stages to create an engineering resume:
- Master Electrical Engineer Resume: The first stage, which is the master electrical engineering resume, is the proprietary method of resume writing experts at Hiration.
This method helps make your present electrical engineer resume and helps in updating your electrical engineering resume later when you switch to a new job.
At this stage, all you have to do is to compile all the information that you have related to your electrical engineer resume in one place. And by that, we mean 'every little detail'.
By doing this, when you proceed with making your electrical engineering resume further, there won't be the need to look for the required information at other places as you've already dumped all your information at a single place.
If you skip this stage and directly go on to make your final electrical engineer resume, then there are chances that you might forget to add details and essential duties.
- The master electrical engineering resume works as a rough electrical engineer resume. You can include and compile all the details related to your electrical engineering resume and ensure that you don't miss out on writing any essential details and information.
- In this master electrical engineer resume, you can include all and any information related to your electrical engineering resume. When we proceed further to make the final electrical engineer resume, all you need is to pick the required information from the master electrical engineering resume and leave the rest in the master resume only.
Now that you're done with the master electrical engineering resume stage let's proceed to the next stage.
Hiration Pro-Tip: After making the master electrical engineer resume, make sure that you save a copy of it. This copy will help update your electrical engineering resume in the future when you change your job.
- First Draft For Your Electrical Engineer Resume: The next stage of electrical engineering resume making is the first draft electrical engineer resume. You will sort and arrange your work experience and internship section in this stage.
Although these sections aren't the first two sections in the electrical engineering resume sections order, it is advised to make them first as these two sections contain the most relevant information. In addition, people often miss out on a point or two if they make it later in the process.
- Final Electrical Engineer Resume: This is the last stage of electrical engineering resume making. In this stage, you need to do a couple of things in the order provided below.
- The first thing to do is make the header sections, personal information, profile title, education, and additional information.
- The second thing that comes in line is to make the key skills and technical skills sections.
- The third is to make the summary/engineering resume objective section.
- The fourth and final thing to do is bold and highlight all the essential words, phrases, and numbers from the professional experience section to the end of the electrical engineer resume.
Electrical Engineer Resume: Professional Experience
As mentioned above, the first step is to make the professional experience section.
This section is the crux of the electrical engineer resume for those professionals who have extensive work experience in electrical engineering.
You can place your keywords for an electrical engineer resume in this section.
The cause-effect electrical engineer resume points will follow the above format. Let us see how to frame these points.
STAR Format for Framing Points in Your Electrical Engineer Resume Professional Experience Section
When people make their electrical engineer resume, they can state what they did perfectly, but they don't know that it's just half the story told.
Apart from stating what they did, they also need to write why they did it and what was the impact of the same.
This gap is bridged by using the cause-effect method of writing one-liner points. With the help of an engineering resume example, let's see how to do it.
AVOID THIS:
Engineering Resume Example 1:
"As an electrical engineer for XYZ company, my roles revolve around various areas. I am directing and overseeing the vendor shop repair on high voltage motors and various equipment while ensuring high quality. In addition, I assisted in identifying the strategic improvements to the product life cycle during the new product development (NDP). I am also responsible for executing the entire strategies revolving around the maintenance of various equipment and assisting senior management in handling a budget of USD 90mn."
PRACTICE THIS:
Engineering Resume Example 2:
- Directing and overseeing vendor shop repair on high voltage motors & equipment to ensure quality
- Assisted in identifying strategic improvements to product life cycle during the New Product Development (NPD) process
- Executing equipment maintenance strategies & assisting senior management in managing a budget of USD 90mn.
From both the examples, we can see that:
PARAGRAPH | ONE-LINERS |
Filled with unnecessary details and information | Contains only the important points |
Is not easy and clear to read | Easy to read and comprehend |
Grouping/Highlighting your Points in the Electrical Engineering Professional Experience Section
Grouping and highlighting help in improving the readability of your electrical engineering resume in a significant way. Let us see how, with the help of electrical engineering resume examples.
LESS IMPACT:
Electrical Engineering Resume Example 1:
- Directing and overseeing vendor shop repair on high voltage motors & equipment to ensure quality
- Assisted in identifying strategic improvements to product life cycle during the New Product Development (NPD) process
- Executing equipment maintenance strategies & assisting senior management in managing a budget of USD 90mn.
- Controlling computer-aided engineering & design of equipment
In engineering resume example 1 above, the points are written without the usage of grouping and highlighting. So, they have low readability.
HIGH IMPACT:
Electrical Engineering Resume Example 2:
Equipment Maintenance & Budget Management
- Directing and overseeing vendor shop repair on high voltage motors & equipment to ensure quality
- Executing equipment maintenance strategies & assisting senior management in managing a budget of USD 90mn.
- Controlling computer-aided engineering & design of equipment
Process Improvement
- Assisted in identifying strategic improvements to product life cycle during the New Product Development (NPD) process
ONE-LINERS | GROUPING & HIGHLIGHTING |
Achievements and contributions do not stand out | Easy to identify achievements and contributions |
The points are not organized | Well-organized and focus stays on the main points |
In engineering resume example 2, we've grouped all the points using the same electrical engineering skills under the group of that skill and have highlighted all the essential words, phrases, and numbers.
Doing these two things have drastically increased the readability of the electrical engineer resume.
Have a glance at the below-given engineering resume example to get a better idea of how to make the professional experience section:
Skills for Electrical Engineer Resume
Now from here, start your final electrical engineer resume stage. We make the key skills section at this stage so that you can scan the rest of your electrical engineering resume to look for the electrical engineering skills to write in the key skills section.
There's a proper way of writing the skills for an electrical engineer resume. Put a bullet before each skill when writing it. For example:
Key Skills | Key Skills |
---|---|
Equipment Maintenance | Budget Management |
Process Improvement | Basic Circuit Knowledge |
Communication | Electronic Troubleshooting |
Numeracy | Programming |
Electronic Schema Development | Data Collection & Analysis |
Operational Skills | Linear Systems Theory & Analysis |
Header | Title |
Paragraph | Text |
Header | Title |
Paragraph | Text |
After you're done making the key skills section, make sure you bold the entire key skills section.
Doing so will help your key skills section stand out from the whole of your electrical engineer resume and will also ensure that the recruiter reads that section first.
Add keywords for your electrical engineer resume in the form of your skills.
To get a better understanding of how to write the key skills, see the below given electrical engineering resume sample of the key skills section:
Technical Skills for Electrical Engineer Resume
Now that we've told you how to write your key skills, you must be thinking about your technical skills?
Well, for your technical skills, you will create a sub-section within the key skills section named 'Technical Skills'. In this section, you will include all your technical skills.
After you're done writing the technical skills for the electrical engineer resume, make sure you bold the whole section and italicize the technical skills.
Since this is a sub-section within the key skills section, highlighting and italicizing the technical skills will separate them from the key skills.
Observe the below electrical engineering resume sample of the technical skills sub-section to get a better understanding of how to make this section:
If you use Hiration's Online Resume Builder, you'll also get the option to add a timeline, bar graphs, pie charts, etc., to show your career and electrical engineering skills in a snapshot. For example, given below is one of the skills charts of our Online Resume Builder:
Electrical Engineer Resume Summary/Objective
The final step of the electrical engineer resume-making process is making the engineering resume objective/summary section of your electrical engineering resume.
Professionals with 3+ years of experience will make a summary section. The electrical engineer resume summary section will explain how you used your electrical engineering skills to benefit the previous organization.
If you are an entry-level professional in this field, make an engineering resume objective section.
In career objective for electrical engineer resume fresher applicant, one must not frame a list of demands but stick to mentioning what all values one is willing to add to the organization.
Look at the electrical engineering resume sample given below to get a better idea of how to optimize your summary:
Electrical Engineering Internship Resume for Fresher
The question that arises now is, what about the freshers in this field?
So, the freshers in electrical engineering will make an 'INTERNSHIP' section in place of a 'PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE' section to build an electrical engineering internship resume.
There's a significant difference between the two. Internships are often unpaid, and while doing a job, you get a good salary for working for an organization.
The freshers with an internship section get the upper hand over those professionals who don't haven't any internships during their college years. Not having any internships will leave a negative impact on the recruiter.
Having no internships gives the impression that you didn't take your career seriously during your college years.
For writing the points of your internship section, use the same method explained above to write the points of the professional experience section.
See the engineering resume example given below to get a better understanding of how to make your internship section:
Electrical Engineer Resume: Header
So, from here starts your first draft stage. The first thing to do at this stage is to make your electrical engineering resume header.
The header comes at the top of your electrical engineer resume and consists of your name. Since it seems to be such a small thing, let us tell you that it has great importance in the electrical engineering resume.
It helps differentiate your electrical engineer resume from other electrical engineering resumes.
The header should be the largest in the whole of your electrical engineer resume. It should be written between the font size of 14-16 points. Along with the font size, make sure the spacing in the header is correct.
Correct spacing is of utmost importance, especially if you have a middle name. In case of a middle name, write it in the following manner: 'Kendall N. Jenner'. Instead of writing the complete middle name, just write the first initial of your middle name and then put a full stop after the initial.
Take a glance at the below engineering resume example to get a clear idea of what an on-point header looks like:
Electrical Engineer Resume: Personal Information
In this step, you will make the personal information section. The information to include in this section is your mobile number, personal e-mail address, and current location of residence.
- Personal Mobile Number: While writing your mobile number, only write one mobile number and not more than that. If you use more than 1 mobile number, do not write both of them. Writing more than one mobile number creates confusion for the recruiter.
The personal mobile number will be written below the header, on the left-hand side.
-
When writing the personal mobile number, make sure to first write the International Subscriber Dialing (ISD) code with a plus sign (+) before it.
-
Then give a single space and then write your mobile number.
-
Then after the first five digits of your mobile number, give one more space.
-
Personal E-mail Address: Next in line is the personal e-mail address.
It will be written in the center, next to the personal mobile number.
- Do not use unprofessional e-mail address names like 'sexysofia@xyz.com'.
- It is very imperative that your e-mail address name looks professional and that it is ideal for putting in an electrical engineer resume.
For example, 'kendall@xyz.com' is an ideal e-mail address for putting in an electrical engineering resume.
At this stage, you can also provide hyperlinks, for your social media platforms and any personal website, if you have any.
But before adding any hyperlinks, make sure that the information on these sites is in sync with each other. In addition, these sites need to be up-to-date concerning your professional information.
- Current Location: The last thing to be written in the personal information section is your current location of residence. It will be written on the right-hand side, next to the personal e-mail address.
If you live in a city that is not your hometown, then, in this case, you will write the name of the city in which you live currently and not the name of your hometown.
Also, please do not write the complete address as it is of no use to the recruiter. Instead, only write the city name and country pin code. Writing these two things is enough to let the recruiter know if you'll be relocating or not if you work with that company.
Hiration Pro Tip: Ensure that you add links to your profiles on GitHub, Kaggle, LinkedIn, or any personal website.
Take a brief look at the electrical engineering resume sample given below for greater clarity on how to write the personal information section:
Electrical Engineer Resume: Profile Title
Next in line is the profile title. A profile title helps the recruiter identify which profile you've applied for.
For example Electrical Engineer, Electrical Design Engineer, Application Engineer, etc.
The basic idea behind writing the profile title is that the recruiter will have complete clarity around the position you've applied for.
The profile title should be the second-largest text in your electrical engineering resume and should be written between the font size of 12-14 points.
Have a glance at the below engineering resume example to get more clarity on how to customize your profile title:
Electrical Engineer Resume: Education
In this section, you will provide information about your educational background. This section will include the courses you did, the school/university you attended, their location, and dates of enrolling in and graduating from them.
All the information in the education section needs to be 100% true as the recruiter decides whether you are qualified enough or not for the job based on this section only.
See the below engineering resume example to get clarity around how to make this section:
Electrical Engineer Resume: Additional Information
In this section, you can include the additional information you think is essential concerning your target profile. For example, if you know more than one language, you can write that in the additional information section.
Such information helps in case you're applying overseas.
If you're applying overseas, writing all the languages you know will help significantly as the recruiter will surely give you preference over the candidates who don't know the language of that country.
Mentioning productive hobbies in a resume for an electrical engineer is also encouraged, but only when the details are a must and relevant.
To get more clarity around how to make this section, look at the engineering resume example provided below:
Electrical Engineer Resume Sample
Below is the complete electrical engineering resume sample for you to see what a well-written electrical engineer resume looks like.
- Directing & overseeing vendor shop repairs on high voltage motors & equipment to ensure quality
- Executing equipment maintenance strategies & assisting senior management in managing a budget of USD 90M
- Controlling computer-aided engineering & creating design plans and drawings of equipment
- Supervising project production, implementation and quality while developing redlines
- Conducting analyses of various systems to evaluate their power needs and maintaining production test equipment
- Upgrading old test systems to PXI based test systems and defining test methods to fulfill functional specifications
- Assisted in identifying strategic improvements to product life cycle during the New Product Development (NPD) process
- Top 10 percentile of class
Key Takeaways
You can use these below-given steps to build an impeccable electrical engineer resume in 2023:
- Write your points using the cause-effect methodology as explained in the article above. Make sure your points reflect these three things (a) your contribution, (b) effect/impact, (c) corresponding achievement
- Make sure you write your job profile, company name, dates of employment, and location in a separate line, and then start your electrical engineering resume points from a new line.
- Include a one-line company description for each of your companies, including figures around the number of employees, revenue, etc.
- Quantify your points wherever you can. Try to bring out as many numbers as you can throughout your electrical engineer resume. Numbers help bring out the impact of your contribution, which otherwise gets drowned out. If you don't remember the exact numbers, you can always provide a ballpark figure. Also, don't over quantify your electrical engineering resume.
- Write numbers only at places where they help increase the impact of your work.
- Highlight essential words, phrases, and numbers throughout your electrical engineer resume as explained above. When highlighting words, remember to highlight only those words, numbers, and phrases that are relevant to your target profile. For example, highlight where all you led a team, what all targets you were able to meet, etc.
- Be careful what you highlight as, during interviews, most of the questions are only around the words, phrases, and numbers you have highlighted. So use it to your benefit.
- Make groups for your electrical engineering resume points. By doing so, the recruiter will just read through your groups and will identify all work you did in your previous jobs. These groups can also be included in the key skills section as your key skills.
- Suppose you've been awarded or recognized for your work in your work experiences. In that case, you can make a separate Key Achievements sub-section within each work experience section and mention those awards and recognition there.
- If your electrical engineer resume is 2 pages, do not write your name again on the second page. Writing it once on the first page at the start of the resume is enough. Writing the name twice gives the impression that you do not have enough points to write and are trying to fill up the white space.
Refer to Hiration Resume Builder and create a professional resume for yourself. Additionally, reach out to us at support@hiration.com and you can get 24/7 professional assistance with all your job & career-related queries.